Nashville teachers the victims in ID theft case

A release from the Tennessee Department of Treasury indicates it was 6,300 Metro Nashville teachers who had their personal information stolen from a state computer.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is looking into the case of Steven Hunter, a former Department of Treasury employee, who is accused of sending an e-mail with a Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System file to a personal e-mail address.

That file, according to a media release from Treasury Department spokesman Blake Fontenay, contained personal information, including Social Security numbers, full names, dates of birth and home addresses of 6,300 active Metro Nashville teachers.

"It should be noted that the personal information of retired teachers in Metro Nashville and active and retired teachers outside of Metro Nashville was not included in the file that was potentially compromised," the release says.

Treasurer David H. Lillard, Jr. immediately notified TBI, which seized Hunter's home computer late Friday. It didn't appear that he had shared the file, the release says.

"This is a situation we take extremely seriously in the Treasury Department," Lillard said in the release. "This former employee clearly violated Tennessee law and the Treasury Department's privacy policy by downloading information that is clearly confidential under federal and state law onto an unencrypted computer."